By Bruce Hammond
For The Rock River Times
With the passing of Karen Howard on Monday, Aug. 7, Rockford lost a truly iconic member of the local arts community. Along with husband Bill and daughters Lani and Jennifer, Karen (aka Ruby…

By Greg Wright
The Conversation
President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong-Un are playing a dangerous game of brinkmanship.
North Korea got the world’s attention – and Trump’s – when it successfully launched an…

By John Guevara
Contributor
There’s a new hullabaloo. Should Rockford put a gas station downtown, or not? This week, answering that question put truth to the Socratic concept, “The only thing I know is that I don’t know a thing.”
The…

By Chelsie Bright
The Conversation
If you want to understand President Donald Trump’s voter fraud commission, it helps to study what happened in Kansas.
Six years before Trump was tweeting about stolen elections and unsubstantiated…

By J.B. Silvers
The Conservation
Now that the new version of the Senate health care bill is available, an outside observer might think that Congress is just dysfunctional, lurching from one extreme to another in search of something…

Given Donald Trump's frequent campaign promises to wipe out "job killing" regulations on Day One, no one should be surprised that the Trump administration is going after federal safeguards that protect consumers at the expense of corporate…

While there are many things we still don't know, one thing we have learned about Russia's attempts to hack the 2016 election is that is was far more widespread than previously thought.
According to a recent report from Bloomberg, hackers…

By Drs. Robert & Sonia Vogl
Contributor
Just a few months ago the passage of Future Energy Jobs Act in Illinois was lauded as promising biggest advancement of clean energy investments in the history of the state. With up to 2700 MW…

By Gerald Friedman
The Conversation
It is easier than ever to buy stuff. You can purchase almost anything on Amazon with a click, and it is only slightly harder to find a place to stay in a foreign city on Airbnb.
So why can’t we…

Four months ago, on Feb. 15, readers saw a new version of The Rock River Times. We made a promise at that time – a time that marked a new era for this paper, one that has served the Rockford community for 30 years: more local journalism.…

By Dan Lesser
The Shriver Brief
SNAP is working.
The Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP, formerly food stamps) helps roughly 1 in 8 people in this country put food on the table each month by providing 100 percent…

By Jim Hagerty
Contributor
DOWNTOWN — While their stories differ, all small businesses have a beginning.
Fresh out of high school, Angie Johnson headed for the coast to try her hand at whatever came along while she pursued a degree…

By James Goldgeier
The Conversation
George H.W. Bush, who turns 93 today, was the last person elected president of the United States with any prior foreign policy experience.
He entered office with one of the most impressive resumes…